Fall foliage;so far, early, late?
 

Planning to land at Manchester on October 14. Will head North or South depending on conditions.
Any early observations? Are we early, late or right on average schedule. Thanks for any feedback.

Well, it's really kind of amazing, this foliage thing. Every year we say it's early or it's late or--but every year it peaks in southern New Hampshire on Columbus Day weekend. It's uncanny. The swamp maples are red right now; other trees have orange edges on the leaves. I think it's right on schedule, whatever that is.

You might want to check back later. Right now we're having a warm spell but nights are cool. We've heard reports that color is early and I've thought this weekend might be peak for the Concord NH area but color seems to have slowed down. Reports are that due to the wet year color will last longer. And Monadnock is right, it always seems to peak Columbus Day weekend. Manchester and Concord seem to have similar amounts of color with swampy areas already colorful with other areas having an occasional colorful tree but we just visited the Salem MA area and saw hardly any color at all. I've seen some beautiful patches of red sumac. I would still plan on driving north to the lakes/mountains soon after you arrive. Color might still be really good and I love places like Center Sandwich anytime of the year. After living a lifetime in this area there are still places we are discovering for the first time like this spring's visit to the Wilmot side of Mt Kearsarge which offers a fantastic view looking out to Lake Sunapee. Gould Hill Orchard in Hopkinton NH has great variety of apples, many antique varieties and a great view looking north to the mountains. It is handy to Rt 89 west of Concord. Haven't heard any reports from the Portsmouth NH area but last year a fungus problem caused certain trees to drop their leaves early without coloring. You will get additional personal reports on Yankee Magazine's website.

It seems to me that the foliage progession is right on the "normal" track, compared to last year anyway!! As mentioned, the newengland.com (Yankee) website is good for foliage, as is scenesofvermont.com (for VT foliage).

NH or VT?

My husband just returned from a weekend in Okemo, VT, and said the leaves weren't really beginning to turn there.

VT...Okemo is in the southern part of the state so the change starts a little later down there.....

the way the wind has been gusting there wont be any needles on the pines let alone any leaves on the trees.

Thanks everybody for the information. I'll keep checking.

Some links where you can find updates:

http://www.weather.com/maps/fallfoliage.html

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/links/Autumn.htm

http://usparks.about.com/cs/natlpark...colorstate.htm

For scenic byways in the area:

http://www.seeamerica.org/byways/index.html

http://www.byways.org/ This one will send a free map.